‘Cushy is the last thing it was, you fucking ignoramus,’ Donnie said. ‘Jeremy would have been caught years ago only for me. He thinks he’s invincible and that he can do anything but he needs a support team. Genius is genius, but genius needs help. His mother knew that too. You know, right at the beginning, Jeremy didn’t understand why Rhona had to die. With the arrogance that makes him a great director, all that certainty, he was sure she’d keep quiet, like she had done all these years. But the risk was too great. Eventually he saw that, eventually we persuaded him. Well, his mother did. She made him see that Rhona had more on him than any of the others. He was still doing it DIY back then with Rhona, doing the collecting in his own car, that old Toyota, doing the drop-off after. That was the very first thing I changed. Right from what’s her name, the girl in Cork in that great hotel, Muskerry Castle. It was really nice being back there recently, actually.’

‘The girl from Cork? You’re talking about Deirdre Carney?’

‘Yes, Deirdre, that was her name. She was a fighter. All talk about reporting Jeremy on the way back from the hotel. Until I explained to her that no one would ever believe her. And told her what would happen if it ever went to court. In intimate detail. You know, all the usual stuff, about how it’s the victim who’s on trial, really.’

He paused.

‘Tell me I’m wrong.’

Lenihan shrugged.

‘You see, you can’t,’ Donnie said. ‘That’s what I told Deirdre, how she’d never recover, all of that. I was good at it and I got better over the years. I had to. I learnt on the job. A steep learning curve that was, I can tell you. Jeremy, well, he’s a handful. Once he gets a fixation on one of them, he has to follow through. That Carmel from the workshop, she was next in line, once the coast was clear. He wasn’t going to do anything until it was, obviously. He’s got his, em, well, weaknesses, but he’s not a fool. He was able to wait, he was always able to wait once he knew that it was going to be worth his while.’

‘And Rhona? Her death?’

‘She would have ruined everything if she’d talked. That’s why she had to go. He knew we were right. He saw it. He was grateful. And Esther … We were, we are, so close.’

‘Who planned it?’

‘What?’

‘Rhona’s murder?’